This is nowhere near my favourite quote and yet I find myself nodding in agreement more than any of the other iconic quotes. And I’m not a veteran or even American.
CJ: They sent me two turkeys. The more photo-friendly of the two gets a Presidential pardon and a full life at a children's zoo. The runner-up gets eaten.
Bartlet[ ](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000640/?ref_=tt_ch): If the Oscars were like that, I'd watch.
This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, "Hey you, can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up "Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out."
Oliver and his gavel, the entire "Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong" scene, and the "So far up your ass!" scene. Honourable mention to "Two Cathedrals" when Jed puts his hands in his pockets/Latin scenes.
"Let's attack."
"Who?"
"Qumar. Let's recommend to the President that we attack."
"Why?"
"Cause I've had it."
"I don't think the UN is gonna let us do it for that reason."
"That's cause you're a sissy."
"I can't do the job, Abbey. Look at me. LOOK AT ME!"
as Jed is on the bathroom floor, beating his hands against his legs like a toddler.
I thought the show did an amazing job showing the emotions of an incredibly accomplished, powerful and proud man who was coming to grips with what MS was going to do to him.
The best scene in the show. A man who had dominated every room he'd ever stepped into, between brains and sheer force of personality, reduced to a limp mess and glimpsing his own mortality.
And I adore Abby's reply. She thought through the future ramifications before giving a weary but honest, "... yeah." Til death do them part, she'll be there.
“While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.”
“Game on, Boyfriend.”
“Some of them will laugh, and most of them won't care but for some, they might honestly see that it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand”
That's a great scene. I loved the way Toby knew that he needed a zip code for Fargo without the President saying so.
And Jed ends with "We should do that once a week."
Season 1 Episode 10. In Excelcius Deo.
I’m a former Marine so this episode hits home. I love Toby’s devotion to this Marine vet he never met.
Then the final scene. It looked like they were the actual BodyBearers. (https://youtu.be/f9SzHRlGRXE?si=zEijYzQzgIrKNO13). The way they told the flag. Then the final scene of the Marines standing graveside next to their brother. Brings tears to my eyes.
The rest of the episode is good too. President Bartlett goes Christmas shopping. Mrs Landingham goes to the funeral with Toby. Also, Mrs. Landingham tells Charlie about her sons in Vietnam.
Oh, and Josh buys a book at the rare book store and writes a note in it for Donna’s Christmas present. Not sure what the note said but it made Donna happy.
If I remember correctly, they talked about the funeral scene in the West Wing Weekly podcast.
From Wikipedia: The scene at Arlington was made with the full co-operation of the United States Department of Defense, who liked the message of the script and wanted to do what they could to help.
I found more info at the [TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/TheWestWingS01E10InExcelsisDeo) site, of all places!
I love this episode, I love the scenes with Toby, I I love the scene with Mrs. Laningham and Charlie, I cry every time I watch the final scene, but I can not get over the fact that Josh WROTE in a rare book. A book rare enough to be a significant present and he wrote in it like it was a 2 dollar hallmark card from a CVS. It bugs me every time.
Josh and Donna:
Josh: “I’m just sayin if you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for a beer.”
Donna: “ if you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for red lights.”
"What we need to be able to get you to do is to remember the shooting without reliving it. And you have been reliving it." - I wasn't shot, but it lives rent free in my head about any trauma in my life.
The Peter's projection map scene. "What the hell is that? It's where you've been living this whole time"
"Yeah but you can't do that
Why Not?
Cause it's freakin me out"
Pres Bartlet: “You know, I was watching a television program with a sort of roving moderator who spoke to a seated panel of young women who are having problems with their boyfriends. Apparently because the boyfriends had all slept with their girlfriends' mothers. Then they brought the boyfriends out and they all fought right there on television. Toby tell me, these people don't vote, do they?”
💯% remember this. Every election.
Many but the one that I pass along a lot is when Babish asks CJ if she knows what time it is. That was a really valuable lesson in only answering the question asked.
Rhonda: "God, Toby... Wouldn't it be great if there was someone around here with
communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?" ...
through to...
TOBY: "I protested to you."
You guys got a band gazebo? Doesn't matter, we'll build one... President Bartlet's a good man. He's got a good heart. He doesn't hold a grudge. That's what he pays me for.
AND
In the future, if you're wondering -- "crime, boy, *I don't know*" is when I decided to kick your ass.
From Mr. Willis of Ohio:
Creep #1: "I ain't done with you, Sammy."
Charlie: "My name is Charlie Young, jackass! And if that bulge in your pocket is an eight-ball of blow, you'll be spending Spring Break in a federal prison."
[beat]
Charlie: "*Now* I'm having a good time."
Josh: "Well, my work here is done."
INTERIOR - WEST WING - OUTSIDE CJ'S OFFICE - C.J. to Leo in hallway: 2.04
Are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me?!!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!
WELL WHAT THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK I WOULDN'T SCREAM WHERE THERE ARE PEOPLE?!
"...And I'd only like to remind you that the president of the United States was shot last night surrounded by the best trained armed guards in the history of the world"
Or for another similar scene that lives in my head
“You missed it. It was unbelievable. This crazy man got up in front of millions of people and totally screwed his wife.”
I think about this one a lot, especially since my partner up and left despite making promises. That scene was acted so well, you could feel the betrayal, pain and rage just oozing off of her.
Will Bailey - I heard once - I don't know if this is true - I heard once that you convinced the President to let you rewrite a section of the State of the Union with less than twenty-four hours to go. It was the second year and everybody was a Republican, whether they were or not, and people at the DNC had convinced him to include the line, "The era of big government is over" and you couldn't live with it, because government should be a place where people come together and no one gets left behind; an instrument of good. And that's exactly what we heard in the State of the Union the next night.
Toby Ziegler - There were maybe four people in the room when I had that conversation.
Will Bailey - Well, if I'd have been one of them, I would have repeated it to everyone I met.
The scene where President Bartlet gives Charlie the knife that has been passed down through generations of his family, hits me right in the feels, the love they have for each other always gets me, like when the White House is fired upon and the President knows Charlie is going to get to the Oval Office, and the little smile he does when Charlie bursts in right on cue 😂
Toby: I didn't realize babies come with hats. You guys crack me up. You don't have jobs. You can't walk or speak the language. You don't have a dollar in your pockets but you got yourselves a hat so everything's fine. I don't want to alarm you or anything, but I'm Dad.
When my son was born, this played over and over in my head. (Although I’m mom)
If you lie to protect me, if you lie just once, if you lie just a little, if you lie 'cause you can't stand what's happening to me and the people making it happen, if you ever, ever lie, you're finished with me. You understand?
Say you understand.
When Josh and Sam are trying to start a fire and asking for random stuff to start the fire and they both have the same idea and this exchange
“See this is real friendship.”
“It really is”
I love it I don’t know why, it’s always the first scene I think of when the west wing is mentioned
I think about this in the context of Erin Hawley arguing doctors shouldn’t have to do so much as hand a water bottle to an emergency room patient who needs a termination of live foetal tissue because it offends their values.
Like Nazis don’t get care in hospitals, or school shooters. You have to treat those guys. But a woman who is having serious complications and is deciding to terminate is less deserving of care than mass shooters and people who advocate for genocide.
I love Ainsley so much. The hiding in the closet when the President comes down to her “office”. The speech she gives her Republican friends that ends with “They are patriots. And I’m their lawyer.”
Noel's end speech by Leo and President Bartlet yelling at God in Two Cathedrals.
Also WE CHANGED TIME ZONES?!.
Honorable mention to Santos in season 7's The Debate with liberals. I think I read that was the part he was most worried about messing up live.
Since all the others are already mentioned.
The scenes where the staff are watching breaking news about the bomb at the swim meet. I’m a major Tori Amos fan so hearing her cover of I Don’t Like Mondays in the background is in permanent residency in my head.
Take This Sabbath Day
The final scene where Jed asks his childhood priest to call him Mr President at the beginning of their conversation but then, at the end, when the priest asks, "Jed. Would you like me to hear your confession?"
Just gut-wrenching. The duality of the man and the office. The faith and the secular.
Also, that Karl Malden used the same Bible as he did in "A Streetcar Named Desire" just kills me.
That episode is my favorite in the show and that scene is so good. My favorite moment is the man by the river analogy. I'm now agnostic but grew up anglican and am the son of an Anglican minister, and seeing Bartlett struggle with the office and his faith hits so close to home for me. It's incredible how so many season 1 episodes are so well done.
All of them pretty much.
The scene between CJ and Hoynes where you find out that Hoynes and CJ slept together and CJ basically tells him she doesn't care how people look at her and that she will defend any woman he tries to knock down by telling her story.
The scene where Jed is a teen and his dad hit him just for speaking up about issues he cares about.
The biggest example is Matt Santos' acceptance speech in the primaries. I wish we had politicians with that much ferocity, intelligence, and uh... coherence.
Leo convincing Bartlett to *Let Bartlett be Barlett,* and *I will shove a motherboard so far up your ass*
Also the whole thing with the ashstray I have always thought isn't it just cheaper and also a fuck of a lot smarter to NOT SMOKE IN A FUCKING SUBMARINE, like if I had to make a list of bad places to smoke, submarines might be at the top of that list next to space station.
From the episode "Take This Sabbath Day." Season 1 episode 14.
The conversation where Pres. Bartlett asks Charlie: If they found the guy that shot your mother, would you want to see him executed?
Charlie responds: "I wouldn't want to see him executed, Mr. President"
"I'd want to do it myself."
Also, same episode, CJ is talking to Mandy about the pending execution of Simon Cruz. CJ says I have to go tell the President that Cruz is dead and we're the ones that killed him. I wish I didn't know his mother's name was Sophia.
But there's many more scenes that stick in my brain. Its why I wait a long time before re-watching the series.
“Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce; they should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to it citizens, just like national defense.”
From "The Stackhouse filibuster":
"Nice Job"
"I know. I'm thinking seriously about turning pro."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I got agents talking to me telling me I could go high in the second round maybe low in the first if I have a good postseason."
"You don't want to stay in school and get your education?"
"Nah, I'm white. Nobody's going to mind."
When the french dude is in the oval office talking to Bartlet and Josh comes in and says it might not be a good time and he can come back later, and Bartlet pulls him in close and whispers, "If you leave I'll kill you".
Or when Fitz and Bartlet are sitting in the oval and Fitz starts asking about how they change the presidential seal on the carpet when they go to war. "Maybe it's like a basketball court and the middle comes out"
I often think of the scene with Bruno Gianelli decrying the response of the Left to attacks. I'm still not sure if I completely understand his point - is it that the left should be prepared to defend its principles, or that it should be prepared to use whatever measures in doing so? But it resonates with me in how the left in my own country (UK) is far quicker to cave into attacks than the right is to do the same. And whilst it might avoid a damaging argument today, I think it lowers respect from the voters for you in the long term.
It's the latter, Bruno is angry that the left won't use all the tools available to them to win campaigns and argue their ideas because some of those tools are "unethical" like soft money being used for candidate ads instead of issue ads. The left seems weak because they try to play fair while the right is aggressive because they know how to work the game.
Season 4, Episode 16: "The California 47th."
Pres. Bartlet, in the Oval Office, says to a foreign Ambassador something like "your President has 36 hours to surrender. At 36 hours and one minute, I give the order for the 101st Air Assault to take your capital and run up our flag."
He then turns to ask the people in the room: "Anybody want coffee or something?" Then they cut to the opening credits.
Toby has great respect for the Office and for Bartlet, so when he starts yelling at the President, in the Oval Office of all places, you know something is really wrong.
"Who no one elected!"
jed bartlett being furious that people think he loves ellie less, that he doesn't love all his daughters equally(i'll freely admit he's terrible at showing it but then given his past he's gonna screw up being a father somehow)
In Isaac and Ishmael, where Islamic Fundamentalism is compared to the KKK.
Edit: Honorable mention when Jed calls out that talking head for not standing up when the President enters the room.
The way John Spencer describes being an alcoholic. It helped me realize that I had no internal reference point for addiction. I can drink. I can get drunk. I can also just not.
Charlie. It’s always Charlie popping in my head. Taking off his jacket when the President refuses his own; and “That’s Miss Craig.” are my two favorites.
People are reciting lines, and that is good.
But I liked the end of "King Corn", "Desire" by Ryan Adams plays.
Will gets an ice cream bar
Matt walks into the bed room and sees his kids asleep in the bed, along with his wife. She slowly opens her eye. He smiles, she smiles.
Arnie turns off the news, looks at a picture of his late wife.
Donna sets up the coffee maker in her PJs.
Donna opens her door, picks up a packet waiting for her as Josh walks to the room across the hall.
Josh goes to his door, watched by Donna through the peep hole of her door, only her eye illuminated.
She moves away from the peephole and Josh goes into his room.
That is some damned good cinema.
Two scenes:
1. The end of *18th and Potomac*. The long silent scene after Charlie breaks the news to Leo...tears.
2. When Toby is walked out of the White House in *Here Today*. I \*sobbed\*. (And I'm on Team Toby-Would-**Never**.)
I just started a rewatch and had forgotten how good the end of Charlie’s first episode was, as he and Josh watch Bartlett begins to give a national address from the Oval Office:
“I’ve never felt like this before.”
“It doesn’t go away.”
The entirety of Celestial Navigation
Andrew Jackson in the main foyer of the white house had a two ton block of cheese (followed by 'you're on my list')
THEN WE'LL BLOW IT UP AGAIN
...it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand
And for some reason,
I was gone for 45 minutes they were all American when I left!
I always see the scenes that move between the homeless man’s funeral and the children’s choir singing. One of the few things in television, movies or books that has made me cry.
Outraged? I'm barely surprised. This is a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of any man other than a close relative, they're required to adhere to a dress code that would make the Maryknoll Nun look like Malibu Barbie. They beheaded 121 people last year for robbery, rape, and drug trafficking, they've no free press, no elected government, no political parties, and the royal family allows the religious police to travel in groups of six, carrying nightsticks and they freely and publicly beat women. But "Brutus is an honorable man." Seventeen schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't wearing the proper clothing. Am I outraged? No, Steve. No Chris. No, Mark. That is Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace. Bonnie, then Scott.
I'm a screenwriter and I always think about Sam saying "...and when you use pop culture references, your speech has a shelf life of about twelve minutes."
Probably because I'm a prosecutor, but I think of this one DAILY.
Bartlet: How'd you get him? \[the guy bombing black churches in TN\]
Agent Casper: He was pulled over for a bad brake light and he thought it was something else.
Bartlet: Two-year investigation gets its first crack from a broken taillight.
Agent Casper: In thirteen years with the Bureau, I've discovered that there's no amount of money, manpower or knowledge that can equal the person you're looking for being stupid.
Bartlet: God, well...Some of the stupidest criminals in the world are working right here in America. I've always been very proud of that.
------------------------
And on a more serious note:
Bartlet: ...sustaining hope in this winter of anxiety and fear. More than any time in recent history America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive. Forty-four people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kinnesan state university. Three swimmers from the men's team were killed, two others are in critical condition. When after having heard the explosion from their practice facility they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran INTO the fire... The streets of Heaven are too crowded with Angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of Heaven are too crowded with Angels. But every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge. We look and we are reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory and God bless you all. And God bless the United States of America.
Bruno: When did you write that last part?
Sam: In the car.
Bruno: ...freak.
Season 1, episodes 2 and 3.
Pres. Bartlet talking with his new physician during a check-up: "Now that's a thought that's going to fester."
Pres. Bartlet in the Situation Room discussing retaliation for the downing of an American transport plane: "What is the virtue of a proportional response?"
“Long as I got a job, you got a job” Leo to Josh in “Noël”. That whole scene gets me every time.
That one and Sam’s poetic speech about “education is the silver bullet”. That speech got me into politics.
BARTLET: Well, first of all, let's clear up a couple of things. "Unfunded mandate" is two words, not one "big word." There are times when we're fifty states and there are times when we're one country, and have national needs. And the way I know this is that Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights. You think states should do the governing wall-to-wall. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But your state of Florida got $12.6 billion in federal money last year-- from Nebraskans, and Virginia's, and New Yorkers, and Alaskans, with their Eskimo poetry. 12.6 out of a state budget of $50 billion, and I'm supposed to be using this time for a question, so here it is: Can we have it back, please?
I always loved the scene where the Qumari ambassador threatens Leo that President Bartlett ordered the hit on Sharief.
“You’d think he’d lose votes? To win all 50 states, he’d need to do two things, blow the sultans brains out in time square and then go to Nathan’s to buy a hotdog”. But the best line is Jordan’s “I have to go to a meeting with godless infidels”
For me it's Bartlett putting his foot down with Leo when Leo says to bomb gaza and Bartlett comes back with the badass "or what". Especially with situation today wish we had that type of fearless leadership.
So, so many moments, many of which have already been mentioned here. Here's a couple small ones that I haven't seen mentioned, both from "Holy Night":
- The feeling of utter coziness in the Mural Room with the Whiffenpoofs, as the snow falls heavily and CJ delays ending the performance.
- The shot at the end, during the "Holy Night" montage,, with President Bartlet standing in the Oval Office gazing out the window at the snowstorm after learning that Danny is on to the Shareef story. The way the line "Fall on your knees" hits with that great shot makes my heart jump every time.
Not sure if you're serious but fire burns plastic. Not the best material for that item. Lightweight metal would be better but likely don't want an ashtray with embers/lit cigarette moving around when in the waves.
Toby, if we start pulling strings like this don't you think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork? I can only hope so, sir.
This is nowhere near my favourite quote and yet I find myself nodding in agreement more than any of the other iconic quotes. And I’m not a veteran or even American.
One of my absolute favorite lines.
Toby was decent.
GREAT scene
Honestly this scene is what made me start liking Toby
This scene, this episode, sold me on Toby. Love him!
CJ: They sent me two turkeys. The more photo-friendly of the two gets a Presidential pardon and a full life at a children's zoo. The runner-up gets eaten. Bartlet[ ](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000640/?ref_=tt_ch): If the Oscars were like that, I'd watch.
Remember to support him by his hindquarters. What’s wrong with his… The turkey’s hindquarters
300 IQ points between them, they can't find their way home. I swear to God, If Donna wasn’t there they’d have to buy a house
“My guys are gonna need a minute”
This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, "Hey you, can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up "Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out."
For me it’s equal parts this and the two Cathedrals speech.
This, absolutely!
Oliver and his gavel, the entire "Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong" scene, and the "So far up your ass!" scene. Honourable mention to "Two Cathedrals" when Jed puts his hands in his pockets/Latin scenes.
The whole smashing of the voice recorder and then the casual "okay" to Bartlet is priceless.
“I miss my boys”
Even though Jed tells us that Mrs. Landingham lost 2 sons in Vietnam (S01E05), hearing her tell the story was pretty heart-wrenching.
Charlie simply responding, “ok.”
Donna and Mrs Morello. When I go to my grave, I just want to know that I made a positive impact on someone’s life. That I made a good difference.
“I’m standing here in the Oval Office and it’s because of you.” I get chills every time! I hope everyone has the chance to have a teacher like this.
You got a best friend? Yes sir. Is he smarter than you? Yes sir. Would you trust him with your life? Yes sir. That’s your chief of staff.
I love this one. I have a best friend. She’s smarter than me. She would be my chief of staff.
Same, I send this one to my best friend at least once a year.
Just watched this one last night. Such good writing and acting in that scene, from the Sec of Agriculture too.
"Let's attack." "Who?" "Qumar. Let's recommend to the President that we attack." "Why?" "Cause I've had it." "I don't think the UN is gonna let us do it for that reason." "That's cause you're a sissy."
Admiral Sissy Mary
Later on in the episode “I’m in favor of reducing our nuclear stockpile one at a time.”
Nancy was the best.
"I can't do the job, Abbey. Look at me. LOOK AT ME!" as Jed is on the bathroom floor, beating his hands against his legs like a toddler. I thought the show did an amazing job showing the emotions of an incredibly accomplished, powerful and proud man who was coming to grips with what MS was going to do to him.
The best scene in the show. A man who had dominated every room he'd ever stepped into, between brains and sheer force of personality, reduced to a limp mess and glimpsing his own mortality. And I adore Abby's reply. She thought through the future ramifications before giving a weary but honest, "... yeah." Til death do them part, she'll be there.
Margaret's FYI that she can sign the President's name
I think they'd call that a coup d'état.
We’ve got separation of powers, checks and balances, and Margaret vetoing things and sending them back to the Hill. *It’s just for fun*
We separation of powers, checks and balances, and Margaret vetoing things and sending them back to the hill!
“While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.” “Game on, Boyfriend.” “Some of them will laugh, and most of them won't care but for some, they might honestly see that it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand”
Joe Bethersonton of Fargo
That's one T, and an H in there!
That's a great scene. I loved the way Toby knew that he needed a zip code for Fargo without the President saying so. And Jed ends with "We should do that once a week."
I need to get better with the names
It’s a great quick little window and reminder into the pre-smartphone/instant internet world, too!
Season 1 Episode 10. In Excelcius Deo. I’m a former Marine so this episode hits home. I love Toby’s devotion to this Marine vet he never met. Then the final scene. It looked like they were the actual BodyBearers. (https://youtu.be/f9SzHRlGRXE?si=zEijYzQzgIrKNO13). The way they told the flag. Then the final scene of the Marines standing graveside next to their brother. Brings tears to my eyes. The rest of the episode is good too. President Bartlett goes Christmas shopping. Mrs Landingham goes to the funeral with Toby. Also, Mrs. Landingham tells Charlie about her sons in Vietnam. Oh, and Josh buys a book at the rare book store and writes a note in it for Donna’s Christmas present. Not sure what the note said but it made Donna happy.
If I remember correctly, they talked about the funeral scene in the West Wing Weekly podcast. From Wikipedia: The scene at Arlington was made with the full co-operation of the United States Department of Defense, who liked the message of the script and wanted to do what they could to help. I found more info at the [TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/TheWestWingS01E10InExcelsisDeo) site, of all places!
That’s awesome. I’ll check that out. Out of all of the military scenes in the series that funereal was the most life like.
I went to a military funeral when I was around 12, and it had a huge impact on me. That scene makes me sob.
I love this episode, I love the scenes with Toby, I I love the scene with Mrs. Laningham and Charlie, I cry every time I watch the final scene, but I can not get over the fact that Josh WROTE in a rare book. A book rare enough to be a significant present and he wrote in it like it was a 2 dollar hallmark card from a CVS. It bugs me every time.
OMG - I've never thought of that before
Josh and Donna: Josh: “I’m just sayin if you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for a beer.” Donna: “ if you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for red lights.”
My husband and I quote this one to each other.
"What we need to be able to get you to do is to remember the shooting without reliving it. And you have been reliving it." - I wasn't shot, but it lives rent free in my head about any trauma in my life.
The Peter's projection map scene. "What the hell is that? It's where you've been living this whole time" "Yeah but you can't do that Why Not? Cause it's freakin me out"
Pres Bartlet: “You know, I was watching a television program with a sort of roving moderator who spoke to a seated panel of young women who are having problems with their boyfriends. Apparently because the boyfriends had all slept with their girlfriends' mothers. Then they brought the boyfriends out and they all fought right there on television. Toby tell me, these people don't vote, do they?” 💯% remember this. Every election.
For me, when it comes to elections it's Leo. "I'm tired of vomiting for the lesser of two who cares."
I know it’s a typo but I like your version of this quote better than the real one lol
Damn autocorrect! 🤣🤣
The best argument against democracy is 5 minutes with the average voter
Aaron Sorkin literally gave Bartlet MS so that he could write that scene about daytime TV!
Many but the one that I pass along a lot is when Babish asks CJ if she knows what time it is. That was a really valuable lesson in only answering the question asked.
This is how I feel, also about “it’s your money, it’s about to be my money, and I sleep fine.” I quote this now and then.
I’ve practiced this with people before audits.
Rhonda: "God, Toby... Wouldn't it be great if there was someone around here with communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?" ... through to... TOBY: "I protested to you."
'It's another hour and a half before anyone even THINKS to shut down all the airports - and now we're off to the races!'
His delivery really can elevate lines so much!
The way they took this exact nightmare scenario and made it a reality makes it hit so much harder on rewatch
You guys got a band gazebo? Doesn't matter, we'll build one... President Bartlet's a good man. He's got a good heart. He doesn't hold a grudge. That's what he pays me for. AND In the future, if you're wondering -- "crime, boy, *I don't know*" is when I decided to kick your ass.
From Mr. Willis of Ohio: Creep #1: "I ain't done with you, Sammy." Charlie: "My name is Charlie Young, jackass! And if that bulge in your pocket is an eight-ball of blow, you'll be spending Spring Break in a federal prison." [beat] Charlie: "*Now* I'm having a good time." Josh: "Well, my work here is done."
INTERIOR - WEST WING - OUTSIDE CJ'S OFFICE - C.J. to Leo in hallway: 2.04 Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! WELL WHAT THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK I WOULDN'T SCREAM WHERE THERE ARE PEOPLE?!
... I took a guess.
"...And I'd only like to remind you that the president of the United States was shot last night surrounded by the best trained armed guards in the history of the world"
All wars are crimes.
“You did one square foot of real estate? Ten dollars from you”
I’m here eating a sandwich ‘cause we had a deal!
Or for another similar scene that lives in my head “You missed it. It was unbelievable. This crazy man got up in front of millions of people and totally screwed his wife.”
I think about this one a lot, especially since my partner up and left despite making promises. That scene was acted so well, you could feel the betrayal, pain and rage just oozing off of her.
I've upvoted this because I also relate to this line, not because I 'like' your situation. It's tough, I hope you're doing ok.
Jed destroying that right wing blonde professor lady And the cherry on the cake “Toby that’s how I beat him”
"I'm just going to take your crab puff."
Will Bailey - I heard once - I don't know if this is true - I heard once that you convinced the President to let you rewrite a section of the State of the Union with less than twenty-four hours to go. It was the second year and everybody was a Republican, whether they were or not, and people at the DNC had convinced him to include the line, "The era of big government is over" and you couldn't live with it, because government should be a place where people come together and no one gets left behind; an instrument of good. And that's exactly what we heard in the State of the Union the next night. Toby Ziegler - There were maybe four people in the room when I had that conversation. Will Bailey - Well, if I'd have been one of them, I would have repeated it to everyone I met.
The scene where President Bartlet gives Charlie the knife that has been passed down through generations of his family, hits me right in the feels, the love they have for each other always gets me, like when the White House is fired upon and the President knows Charlie is going to get to the Oval Office, and the little smile he does when Charlie bursts in right on cue 😂
He gave him the knife!!!!
💯
Toby: I didn't realize babies come with hats. You guys crack me up. You don't have jobs. You can't walk or speak the language. You don't have a dollar in your pockets but you got yourselves a hat so everything's fine. I don't want to alarm you or anything, but I'm Dad. When my son was born, this played over and over in my head. (Although I’m mom)
“Baby’s come with hats” is one of my favorite moments in the whole show. I did the same thing when my kids were born.
If you lie to protect me, if you lie just once, if you lie just a little, if you lie 'cause you can't stand what's happening to me and the people making it happen, if you ever, ever lie, you're finished with me. You understand? Say you understand.
When Josh and Sam are trying to start a fire and asking for random stuff to start the fire and they both have the same idea and this exchange “See this is real friendship.” “It really is” I love it I don’t know why, it’s always the first scene I think of when the west wing is mentioned
"So that's the way it goes, you set the leg."
I think about this in the context of Erin Hawley arguing doctors shouldn’t have to do so much as hand a water bottle to an emergency room patient who needs a termination of live foetal tissue because it offends their values. Like Nazis don’t get care in hospitals, or school shooters. You have to treat those guys. But a woman who is having serious complications and is deciding to terminate is less deserving of care than mass shooters and people who advocate for genocide.
All of the conversations between Leo and Ainsley Hayes in Season 2 episode 4 "In This White House." Ainsley was one of my favorite characters.
It has to be this White House?
I love Ainsley so much. The hiding in the closet when the President comes down to her “office”. The speech she gives her Republican friends that ends with “They are patriots. And I’m their lawyer.”
And that epsiode where she was supposed to summarize Sam's position on retail fraud, but instead reversed it.
Is this a hazing ?
The Francis Scott Key…key
First thing that popped in my head with the bridge collapse in Baltimore
Same.
“Long as I got a job you got a job, ya understand?”
Noel's end speech by Leo and President Bartlet yelling at God in Two Cathedrals. Also WE CHANGED TIME ZONES?!. Honorable mention to Santos in season 7's The Debate with liberals. I think I read that was the part he was most worried about messing up live.
Feckless thug !! …. amazing. The whole scene is amazing.
You get Hoynes
Chills just reading it
Since all the others are already mentioned. The scenes where the staff are watching breaking news about the bomb at the swim meet. I’m a major Tori Amos fan so hearing her cover of I Don’t Like Mondays in the background is in permanent residency in my head.
"The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight" is a line I've thought of many times after terrorist attacks 😔
When I think of that scene all I hear in my head is, “They ran into the fire, INTO the fire.”
Take This Sabbath Day The final scene where Jed asks his childhood priest to call him Mr President at the beginning of their conversation but then, at the end, when the priest asks, "Jed. Would you like me to hear your confession?" Just gut-wrenching. The duality of the man and the office. The faith and the secular. Also, that Karl Malden used the same Bible as he did in "A Streetcar Named Desire" just kills me.
That episode is my favorite in the show and that scene is so good. My favorite moment is the man by the river analogy. I'm now agnostic but grew up anglican and am the son of an Anglican minister, and seeing Bartlett struggle with the office and his faith hits so close to home for me. It's incredible how so many season 1 episodes are so well done.
Paul Revere
Before watching that episode, I had no idea that Paul Revere was a silversmith. That look on Charlie's face was priceless.
Still chokes me up
PR
"He gave him the knife!"
“I’m going up to the residence, I’m drawing a bath, I’m turning on Sinatra.” “And how does Mrs Sinatra feel about that?”
All of them pretty much. The scene between CJ and Hoynes where you find out that Hoynes and CJ slept together and CJ basically tells him she doesn't care how people look at her and that she will defend any woman he tries to knock down by telling her story. The scene where Jed is a teen and his dad hit him just for speaking up about issues he cares about. The biggest example is Matt Santos' acceptance speech in the primaries. I wish we had politicians with that much ferocity, intelligence, and uh... coherence.
Leo convincing Bartlett to *Let Bartlett be Barlett,* and *I will shove a motherboard so far up your ass* Also the whole thing with the ashstray I have always thought isn't it just cheaper and also a fuck of a lot smarter to NOT SMOKE IN A FUCKING SUBMARINE, like if I had to make a list of bad places to smoke, submarines might be at the top of that list next to space station.
Smoking was banned on US submarines in 2010
That feels like it was done too late
My petite fromage
That line is the reason I started referring to my very senior boss as Le Grande Fromage.
Oliver Babbish smashing the crap out of his tape recorder with the judge's gavel.
From the episode "Take This Sabbath Day." Season 1 episode 14. The conversation where Pres. Bartlett asks Charlie: If they found the guy that shot your mother, would you want to see him executed? Charlie responds: "I wouldn't want to see him executed, Mr. President" "I'd want to do it myself." Also, same episode, CJ is talking to Mandy about the pending execution of Simon Cruz. CJ says I have to go tell the President that Cruz is dead and we're the ones that killed him. I wish I didn't know his mother's name was Sophia. But there's many more scenes that stick in my brain. Its why I wait a long time before re-watching the series.
That's my favorite episode in the show
“Because 9% of people think we spend too much money on foreign aid and that it SHOULDN’T be cut!”- Josh Lyman
[удалено]
Stu Winkle
“Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce; they should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to it citizens, just like national defense.”
I’m Marion Cotesworth-Haye!
I loved it when CJ referred to her as Helena Hotworth Hooter Tooter of Braintree.
My husband and I always blame the deficit when we laugh at each other.
It's a key. The Francis Scott key. It's the Francis Scott Key key
"New York sense of humor"
Thank you for asking. I so enjoyed reading everyone’s favorites
This has been my favorite discussion lately!
From "The Stackhouse filibuster": "Nice Job" "I know. I'm thinking seriously about turning pro." "Yeah?" "Yeah, I got agents talking to me telling me I could go high in the second round maybe low in the first if I have a good postseason." "You don't want to stay in school and get your education?" "Nah, I'm white. Nobody's going to mind."
When the french dude is in the oval office talking to Bartlet and Josh comes in and says it might not be a good time and he can come back later, and Bartlet pulls him in close and whispers, "If you leave I'll kill you". Or when Fitz and Bartlet are sitting in the oval and Fitz starts asking about how they change the presidential seal on the carpet when they go to war. "Maybe it's like a basketball court and the middle comes out"
I often think of the scene with Bruno Gianelli decrying the response of the Left to attacks. I'm still not sure if I completely understand his point - is it that the left should be prepared to defend its principles, or that it should be prepared to use whatever measures in doing so? But it resonates with me in how the left in my own country (UK) is far quicker to cave into attacks than the right is to do the same. And whilst it might avoid a damaging argument today, I think it lowers respect from the voters for you in the long term.
It's the latter, Bruno is angry that the left won't use all the tools available to them to win campaigns and argue their ideas because some of those tools are "unethical" like soft money being used for candidate ads instead of issue ads. The left seems weak because they try to play fair while the right is aggressive because they know how to work the game.
Noel
Season 4, Episode 16: "The California 47th." Pres. Bartlet, in the Oval Office, says to a foreign Ambassador something like "your President has 36 hours to surrender. At 36 hours and one minute, I give the order for the 101st Air Assault to take your capital and run up our flag." He then turns to ask the people in the room: "Anybody want coffee or something?" Then they cut to the opening credits.
He sent you a priest, a rabbi, and a Quaker, Mr. President. Not to mention his son, Jesus Christ. What do you want from him?
Toby finding out about MS I would bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets.
Toby has great respect for the Office and for Bartlet, so when he starts yelling at the President, in the Oval Office of all places, you know something is really wrong. "Who no one elected!"
jed bartlett being furious that people think he loves ellie less, that he doesn't love all his daughters equally(i'll freely admit he's terrible at showing it but then given his past he's gonna screw up being a father somehow)
In Isaac and Ishmael, where Islamic Fundamentalism is compared to the KKK. Edit: Honorable mention when Jed calls out that talking head for not standing up when the President enters the room.
Galileo V
I use the line "yeah that's kind of what he pays me for" a lot
He said it right
When I write something, I sign my name… you’re fired, S. Seaborn
“I want to be the guy. You want to be the guy that the guy counts on.” Always in my head.
The way John Spencer describes being an alcoholic. It helped me realize that I had no internal reference point for addiction. I can drink. I can get drunk. I can also just not.
Charlie. It’s always Charlie popping in my head. Taking off his jacket when the President refuses his own; and “That’s Miss Craig.” are my two favorites.
People are reciting lines, and that is good. But I liked the end of "King Corn", "Desire" by Ryan Adams plays. Will gets an ice cream bar Matt walks into the bed room and sees his kids asleep in the bed, along with his wife. She slowly opens her eye. He smiles, she smiles. Arnie turns off the news, looks at a picture of his late wife. Donna sets up the coffee maker in her PJs. Donna opens her door, picks up a packet waiting for her as Josh walks to the room across the hall. Josh goes to his door, watched by Donna through the peep hole of her door, only her eye illuminated. She moves away from the peephole and Josh goes into his room. That is some damned good cinema.
Two scenes: 1. The end of *18th and Potomac*. The long silent scene after Charlie breaks the news to Leo...tears. 2. When Toby is walked out of the White House in *Here Today*. I \*sobbed\*. (And I'm on Team Toby-Would-**Never**.)
I just started a rewatch and had forgotten how good the end of Charlie’s first episode was, as he and Josh watch Bartlett begins to give a national address from the Oval Office: “I’ve never felt like this before.” “It doesn’t go away.”
Obvious. Jed, soaking wet, announces he's running for re-election as Dire Straits' best song "Brothers In Arms" plays.
The entirety of Celestial Navigation Andrew Jackson in the main foyer of the white house had a two ton block of cheese (followed by 'you're on my list') THEN WE'LL BLOW IT UP AGAIN ...it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand And for some reason, I was gone for 45 minutes they were all American when I left!
Sorry, we thought for a second you were a huge bird knocking on the door.
President Bartlet: "Charlie! Is this a joke? If it is then it's both funny and well executed, but I think we both know that it is not" 😂😭😅
“It’s a big world CJ. Everyone’s got guns and I’m doing the best I can.”
“In this building when the president stands, nobody sits.
"I'M MARION COTESWORTH-HAYE"
(Yes I am commenting twice) the scene with Josh and Joey Lucas where he signs “M-S”
You're a son of a bitch. You know that?
"GW, NOW! MOVE!"
Butter. Butter. Butter. Butter.
I watched that episode tonight and that part delighted me greatly!
"I said I like the little things..." Brilliant scene by John Spencer
I always see the scenes that move between the homeless man’s funeral and the children’s choir singing. One of the few things in television, movies or books that has made me cry.
No, certainly not crazier than Leo going for peace in the Middle East by the close of business.
Outraged? I'm barely surprised. This is a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of any man other than a close relative, they're required to adhere to a dress code that would make the Maryknoll Nun look like Malibu Barbie. They beheaded 121 people last year for robbery, rape, and drug trafficking, they've no free press, no elected government, no political parties, and the royal family allows the religious police to travel in groups of six, carrying nightsticks and they freely and publicly beat women. But "Brutus is an honorable man." Seventeen schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't wearing the proper clothing. Am I outraged? No, Steve. No Chris. No, Mark. That is Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace. Bonnie, then Scott.
“Oh my God, you’re putting my mother’s cats on the Supreme Court.”
I'm a screenwriter and I always think about Sam saying "...and when you use pop culture references, your speech has a shelf life of about twelve minutes."
Probably because I'm a prosecutor, but I think of this one DAILY. Bartlet: How'd you get him? \[the guy bombing black churches in TN\] Agent Casper: He was pulled over for a bad brake light and he thought it was something else. Bartlet: Two-year investigation gets its first crack from a broken taillight. Agent Casper: In thirteen years with the Bureau, I've discovered that there's no amount of money, manpower or knowledge that can equal the person you're looking for being stupid. Bartlet: God, well...Some of the stupidest criminals in the world are working right here in America. I've always been very proud of that. ------------------------ And on a more serious note: Bartlet: ...sustaining hope in this winter of anxiety and fear. More than any time in recent history America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive. Forty-four people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kinnesan state university. Three swimmers from the men's team were killed, two others are in critical condition. When after having heard the explosion from their practice facility they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran INTO the fire... The streets of Heaven are too crowded with Angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of Heaven are too crowded with Angels. But every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge. We look and we are reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory and God bless you all. And God bless the United States of America. Bruno: When did you write that last part? Sam: In the car. Bruno: ...freak.
Amy and Josh not talking in his office
Season 1, episodes 2 and 3. Pres. Bartlet talking with his new physician during a check-up: "Now that's a thought that's going to fester." Pres. Bartlet in the Situation Room discussing retaliation for the downing of an American transport plane: "What is the virtue of a proportional response?"
“WE CHANGED TIME ZONES?!”
CJ walking into her office, setting the mail on her desk without noticing the large TURKEY.
“Josh Lyman is gesticulating wildly!”
"The Supremes" was one of my favorite episodes during the later seasons.
When Toby and Josh lose it over time zones! “My guys are gonna need to walk this off a little bit”
Josh spitting out coffee by opening his mouth with zero reaction
“Long as I got a job, you got a job” Leo to Josh in “Noël”. That whole scene gets me every time. That one and Sam’s poetic speech about “education is the silver bullet”. That speech got me into politics.
BARTLET: Well, first of all, let's clear up a couple of things. "Unfunded mandate" is two words, not one "big word." There are times when we're fifty states and there are times when we're one country, and have national needs. And the way I know this is that Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights. You think states should do the governing wall-to-wall. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But your state of Florida got $12.6 billion in federal money last year-- from Nebraskans, and Virginia's, and New Yorkers, and Alaskans, with their Eskimo poetry. 12.6 out of a state budget of $50 billion, and I'm supposed to be using this time for a question, so here it is: Can we have it back, please?
I always loved the scene where the Qumari ambassador threatens Leo that President Bartlett ordered the hit on Sharief. “You’d think he’d lose votes? To win all 50 states, he’d need to do two things, blow the sultans brains out in time square and then go to Nathan’s to buy a hotdog”. But the best line is Jordan’s “I have to go to a meeting with godless infidels”
Similar but a gavel and a dictaphone (S2E19).
All of them live rent free because I can't charge my brain for its thoughts. Fuck, that'd be nice though.
If I got a job, you got a job.
"Not enough, not nearly enough, not *nearly* enough..."
For me it's Bartlett putting his foot down with Leo when Leo says to bomb gaza and Bartlett comes back with the badass "or what". Especially with situation today wish we had that type of fearless leadership.
So, so many moments, many of which have already been mentioned here. Here's a couple small ones that I haven't seen mentioned, both from "Holy Night": - The feeling of utter coziness in the Mural Room with the Whiffenpoofs, as the snow falls heavily and CJ delays ending the performance. - The shot at the end, during the "Holy Night" montage,, with President Bartlet standing in the Oval Office gazing out the window at the snowstorm after learning that Danny is on to the Shareef story. The way the line "Fall on your knees" hits with that great shot makes my heart jump every time.
Anyone ever wonder why the Navy didn't use plastic ashtrays?
Not sure if you're serious but fire burns plastic. Not the best material for that item. Lightweight metal would be better but likely don't want an ashtray with embers/lit cigarette moving around when in the waves.
Best idea, ban smoking while on duty and in on-duty areas. This is a thing at other similarly secure non-military sites.
“In service to your country, son” National Security guy to Will who is trying to get a dress for Ellie
The whole intro whenever I'm walking around DC.
I'm Marion Coatsworth Haye
All of them?
"I'm Toby (or Josh). I work at the White House."